This was a tough session for everyone. It was the windiest I've experienced at Southend and really choppy in the channel when entering the course and sailing back upwind. It took me a while to get in to the groove as I was pretty overpowered on my 5.1 but with a bit of tuning things slowly started to improve.

Once my peaks were consistently in the 40's, I decided to head upwind and try to do a decent nautical mile. Twenty minutes of tacking upwind (6 tacks on each side) was pretty gruelling for a single run back which would take little more than 1 minute 30 seconds!

During the first half of the run I averaged over 40 knots and I passed a rowing boat which seemed a little out of place in the strong winds. About two thirds of the way into my run and doing over 40 knots my fin started grinding on the bottom but I managed to avoid catapulting and bore off into what should have been deeper water where I hit the bottom again! After these narrow escapes my speed was down to 30 knots so for the remainder of the run I was getting back up to speed and calming my nerves. :o

During my mile attempt my peak was 41.5 knots and the fastest 10s was 41.1 knots. The overall result for the mile was 38.1 knots (PB) and it also included PBs for 500m (40.4 knots - my first over 40 knots) and 250m (41.0 knots). I think the angle was about as good as you could hope for because any broader would have created too much chop. My new PBs should keep me smiling for the next few weeks. :)

Only 4 speedies were out today and it has to be said that it was total carnage!

- After a year off the water Lance had 2 big crashes in succession and put a nice dent in his sail

- Jim hit the bottom during a speed run which trashed his fin, snapped the harness line and broke the clasp of his harness. Earlier in the day he also had the misfortune of trashing another fin on the leeward side of the Ray!

- Ian span out on his last run, snapped the bottom batten with his knee, split his nose open on the boom and has a nice lump between his eyes.

- I knackered my fin by scraping it on the bottom during my nautical mile attempt.

The Ray threw everything at us today but I'm pleased to have come away with a few PBs - 250m, 500m, 1852m.

Wrong kit choice for the conditions , it was difficult to get decent 10 secs unless you let it go deep into the chop. wind really kicked in and I should of been on the W44 and a 5m, the Falcon and my 5.4 was a handful today.

Still I think a PB average for me at Southend so not all bad. Saw Jimbo have a massive crash trying to sail in one inch of water,  could of been very nasty indeed, luckily he got away with it and just asked me if I got any more fins that need testing Lol.

Well done on your NM pb Mike thats impressive in the conditions. and nice to see Lance getting back on it, be good to see you more often.

Great to be out on the water again but disappointing from pretty much all other angles!

I need to do a lot of tuning with all new kit and my stance is definitely wrong, it's amazing how technical speedsailing is and how tiny alterations make such a big difference. I feel I'm only a few tweeks away from better speeds but at the moment it all feels very uncomfortable (front foot keeps coming out of the strap when flying off the wind which is not good and generally leads to disaster which knocks my confidence).

I need to get up to WK to prctice a bit as after the walk at the Ray I barely feel like sailing let alone messing about with settings. Unlike everyone else of course who sails longer and goes much faster!

Good to see Ian, Jim and Mike and thanks for the advice, screwdrivers, encouragement etc.

And then my GT 31 started playing up and I had to rescue these figures manually.